Easy RV Travel Day Dinner Ideas (What We Eat After a Long Day on the Road)
Travel days always start with good intentions.
I wake up thinking it’s gonna be calm, organized, and ahead of schedule, but somehow the morning flies by quickly with all the things that need doing before we roll down the driveway in Figment. There are clothes to pack and tuck away. Food to pack, check and restock.
Toiletries, hiking shoes, bug spray, sunscreen, camp chairs, and the mysterious collection of tools and supplies that seem to multiply in the storage bays. And don’t forget the dog food, gear and doggie snacks and toys for Simon and Pru.
Then comes the final sweep: cupboards latched, drawers secured, loose items stowed, refrigerator checked, water off, power disconnected. ‘Final departure - CHECK!’ and then we are loading up the pups, who have waited very patiently for days, and are motoring toward the next adventure.
Why RV Travel Days Make Dinner Difficult
If you travel by RV, you know that travel day meals can be the hardest meals of the trip. Between packing up camp, driving to the next destination, and setting up again, the day gets long quickly.
Most travel days look something like this:
• Pack and secure everything inside the camper
• Drive to the next destination
• Stop at a grocery store on the way in
• Arrive late afternoon or near sunset
• Set up the campsite
By the time the camper is leveled, hooked up, and the dogs have explored their new surroundings, everyone is hungry, and cooking a complicated dinner is the last thing anyone wants to do.
That’s why having a plan for easy RV travel day dinners makes life so much easier.
My Favorite Strategy for RV Travel Day Meals
One thing I’ve learned is that travel day dinners need a strategy. The best solutions are meals that require little to no cooking when you arrive at your campsite, because getting there is not as easy as it may seem.
Sometimes I make something ahead of time—maybe a casserole or a pot of soup waiting patiently in the refrigerator. Of course, there was the memorable Wonderbag tomato soup incident, but that’s a story for another day.
Another option is a make-ahead salad with cooked chicken or steak and vegetables already sliced. It’s fresh and satisfying, but it does require prep time—and the night before a travel day is usually busy enough already.
Then there’s the reliable backup plan:
Frozen pizza.
It may not be glamorous, but after a long day on the road, pizza tastes surprisingly wonderful.
Still, my favorite option is something even simpler. If budget and daylight allows and we pass through an interesting town along the way, we stop at a local restaurant. Sometimes we sit down for a good meal and a little rest and other times we grab something to go and bring it back to the campsite.
There can be something magical about that first evening in a new place—all set up and dinner taken care of, sitting outside as the sun fades, dogs curled up nearby, ready for tomorrow’s adventures.
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5 Easy RV Travel Day Dinner Ideas
If you’re wondering what to eat on RV travel days, here are a few simple ideas that make arrival at camp much easier.
Make-Ahead Casserole
Prepare a casserole the night before you leave and store it in the refrigerator., or make it a week or two before and freeze. For casseroles or soups that I have frozen, I simply take them out of the freezer and pack in the refrigerator of the RV. When you arrive at camp, simply warm it up in the oven.
Good options include:
• Baked pasta such as Beef-A-Roni (pictured)
• Beer Braised Lentils and Sausage
• Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole (low carb)
2. Soup or Stew
Soup is one of the easiest make-ahead RV meals. It reheats quickly and requires almost no effort after a long travel day.
Tomato soup, chili, or vegetable stew are all great options. I will be sharing some of my best soup recipes here, so be sure to check the recipe section.
Just be careful if you’re experimenting with a Wonderbag… ask me how I know. One of my favorite tricks is to get the soup boiling on the morning of departure and place it in the Wonderbag so you have hot soup on the ready when you get to camp. If you try this, my best advice is to keep the Wonderbag within eyesight on a flat, secure surface - not on a countertop or propped on top of a stack of linens and towels that you think are “secure.”
3. Pre-Made Protein Salad
A high-protein travel day salad can be surprisingly satisfying and especially good during garden harvest season, when ingredients are freshest
Before you leave, prepare a container with:
• sliced chicken or steak, peas and/or beans
• chopped lettuce and/or cabbage
• tomatoes
• cucumbers
. peppers
• cheese
. rice or lentils
• dressing on the side
When you arrive, just toss everything together.
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4. Frozen Pizza (the good ol’ backup plan)
Every RV traveler needs a backup meal. I usually buy a pizza (our favorite is “Screamin’ Sicilian”) or pre-make one and have it in the freezer for dinner emergencies. It’s also quite easy to throw a makeshift pizza together on flatbread or naan, if you have sauce and topping ingredients.
It’s not necessarily the healthiest option, but it’s fast, easy, and requires almost no thought when you’re tired after a long day on the road.
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5. Stop at a Restaurant on the Way
This is actually my favorite RV travel day dinner strategy.
If it’s in our budget and daylight allows, we try to stop somewhere interesting along the route. Or, if you’re lucky enough to be camping somewhere that has a fabulous restaurant like The Cove Pub Campground, then you’ve hit the dinner jackpot!
Sometimes we find a dog-friendly restaurant and enjoy dining out for dinner. If the dog-friendly options aren’t enticing or if we are feeling pressed for time, we grab takeout and bring it back to camp.
Eating outside at a new campsite with a good meal from a local restaurant feels like the perfect welcome to a new destination, in a way immersing you in the local flavor. Camp is set up and the road is behind you. New adventures await you in the morning.
